Mung bean (Vigna radiata seed) is a seed with a high level of physiological function that has been used in China as a type of herbal remedy for reducing inflammation, and it is widely consumed in China and Southeast Asia regions. Mung bean is also a food that is highly useful as a protein source, since it is not recognized as a major food allergen. Patent literature 1 discloses the use of mung bean protein extracted from mung bean, in bread and cookies. Also, Non-patent literature 1 teaches that despite the high foamability of mung bean protein, it has lower gelling ability than other proteins.
Gelled foods are foods prepared utilizing the gelling ability of proteins and the like, and they include, for example, fermented foods such as cheese and yogurt, and desserts such as jelly and pudding. Most gelled foods use animal proteins such as milk protein, egg protein and gelatin. Because these animal proteins are major food causing food allergy, much research has been conducted on plant-based gelled foods that do not employ such materials. For example, patent literature 2 discloses a method for producing a processed cheese-like food using egg white, starch, milk protein, wheat protein, soybean protein, gelatin, collagen or the like as a coagulant. However, the processed cheese-like food described in patent literature 2 is not purely plant based and therefore cannot be ingested by patients with milk allergy or egg allergy. In patent literature 3 there is disclosed a method for producing a pure plant-based cream cheese-like food without using animal protein such as milk, by mixing soybean protein and vegetable fat or oil, and fermenting it with lactic acid bacteria.